Time seemed to slow to a crawl. Sherlock had no idea how long he was in labor. It was push after push after push. Finally the healer told him to push hard, the head was coming out. Sherlock was there, taking John's hand squeezes, almost enough to break a human's hand.

Thankfully he wasn't human.

And then, finally, the head was free, one more push, and the shoulders came through. One more huge push and there was what seemed like an hour of silence.

It was only a couple of seconds.

There was a loud cry. It was their baby, screaming out to the world that it had arrived.

"Congratulations. It's a boy." The healer said, holding the baby up. He grabbed some towels and dried the still wiggling and screaming baby. He tied off and cut the cord, then wrapped up the baby and handed him to John.

"He looks healthy." He said, with a smile.